Identifies the features of effective educational talk, using contextual differences between educational and social settings as starting points for the examination of students' seminar discourse, videotaped during a study of small-group classroom discussions in the United Kingdom. Findings reveal that these features include an appreciation of the…

Three child psychology studies illustrate that although behavior can be shaped by rewards and punishments, children also learn through imitating adult role models. When parents combine control and warmth, children are more independent, responsible, and content than when either control or warmth is absent. Human behavior is influenced by context…

Examined role of social-referential context in 13- and 18- month-olds' mapping of verbal and nonverbal symbols to object categories. Found that infants at both ages showed evidence of learning both words and sounds when the experimenter produced a label within a familiar naming routine, and failed to learn when labels were emitted from a baby…

Twenty-four students with reading difficulties (grade 4) and 85 skilled readers completed a reading comprehension test, read aloud a folktale, and read aloud a list of the folktale's words. Skilled readers read three times more correct words per minute in context and showed higher accuracy and rates on all measures. (Contains references.)…

Investigated the probable effect of different contexts on learning idioms, as well as the interaction between learning idioms in different contexts and English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) learners' language proficiency. Findings revealed that different contexts and proficiency levels had significant effects on EFL learners' acquisition of idioms;…

Describes the phases of a research project in which the author moves from classroom to library, from empirical data to theoretical framework and back again. The methodology includes a comparative dimension through the collection of data from learners in three countries and demonstrates the development of insights from these three sources to gain…

Investigates the association between attitude towards the philosophy of science and academic qualification professional training. Analyzes responses from 33 A-level biology teachers to a questionnaire and reports from teachers in Harare on their school contexts. Suggests that the differential distribution of facilities and resources across school…

Re-interprets Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development as a recommendation that primary school teachers attend to what both they and their students bring to learning interactions, including cultural contexts and personal histories. Emphasizes Vygotsky's idea that teacher-student interactions be characterized by both teaching and…

Examines the significance of several developmental theories for early childhood education, including those of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bronfenbrenner. Raises questions about how ideological assumptions and contextual factors affect theory development. Argues that contemporary theorists can share ideas, cross geographical and interdisciplinary…

Overviews ethical issues in applied linguistics presented in this special issue. The review discusses the articles' contributions within the broader contexts of the discipline and beyond the concerns of ethnocentric and Western contexts. The article argues that the issues raised are crucial to understanding functional approaches to linguistics and…

Investigates the language choice and code switching behavior of the councilors and officials in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong during 1991-95, within the context of the upcoming transfer of sovereignty in 1997 and the challenges to the old political power relationship. Points out that code switching behavior is part of the negotiation…

Illustrates the interdependence between theory and method by showing how the methods underling even a relatively simple analysis of discourse are imbued with theoretical import. Focuses on two methodological decisions that are a standard part of the set of discourse analytic tools: what is context and what is the unit of analysis? (39 references)…

Reviews "On Claims That Answer the Wrong Questions" (James Greeno, 1997) that argues differences between situative and cognitive views of learning are more conceptual than empirical and suggests a need for something greater than empirical evidence to assess the relative worth between these competing perspectives. Additionally reviewed is…

Argues the differences between situative and cognitive views of learning, as proposed by J. R. Anderson et al. (1996), are more conceptual than empirical. It clarifies these differences by inferring questions to which the Anderson discussion provided answers, identifies presuppositions of those questions, and states the different presuppositions…

Argues that the cognitive methodology has delivered real educational applications in a way that the situative methodology has not, and fundamentally can not, and suggests these two approaches should be judged by their abilities to improve education. It addresses each of J. G. Greeno's (1997) criticisms of the situative perspective and argues…